Dubya's Last Stand

"Hi George. Damn, you look awful."

"I've gotta go to Germany. They all hate me you know."

"Who does?"

"All them Europeans. They all think I'm some kind of Yahoo or cowboy or something."

"It's the war, George. I told you that was gonna be trouble."

"You did?"

"Yeah, don't you remember. I told you it was going to be our Northern Ireland, only, it turns, I was being way too optimistic."

"Now the country wants to bail out on me. Instead of sticking it out, they want to turn tail and run. Thank God you're still on my side. At least you don't think we should surrender to these sons of ..."

"Well, actually..."

"Actually? What do you mean? Don't tell me..."

"Look, George. There are some really savage, murderous, people in the world. People who don't think twice about strapping a bomb on someone, yelling 'God is great', and sending them into a crowded market to kill helpless men, women and children. People who would cut your throat just for the thrill of it and the chance to be on national tv. People who rule by terrorizing the innocent. I hate to see the U.S. back down from people like that and let brutality win the day. But facts are facts - we're not making any progress. The enemy seems to grow stronger while we seem to bleed a little more each day. All I'm saying is maybe it's time to rethink our strategy."

"No. We can't surrender. We can't let the world think the U.S. is nothing more than a paper tiger. If we do, we just invite more attacks and more terror. We have to stick it out."

"I didn't say surrender, George. Sticking it out is one thing, but we're not getting anywhere. You know I'm all for making a stand and not yielding to ruthlessness and cruelty, but this war of ours is starting to look less like a brave stand and more like Pickett's charge. At some point we've got to regroup and rethink our options. Instead of calling it surrender, maybe you should think about whether or not Iraq is the right place to fight these guys in the first place."

"If we leave Iraq, then that's it. The democrats will never authorize another deployment. We'll have been defeated, and all those soldiers will have died in vain."

"How do you know? Losing the battle doesn't mean the war is lost. C'mon George, let's be realistic. Iraq is like a dream come true for these terrorists. They have cover, freedom of movement and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of arms and equipment. Meanwhile, we're the the big, foreign superpower, and, for crying out loud, we can't even keep the lights on and the water running. That's not the way to fight these guys, George. Face it, a big show of force is just a bigger target to attack, and the terrorists have all the time in the world to hit us and then disappear into the desert. It's futile."

"But we're there and we can't just walk away. Not without finishing the job."

"Yeah, we've go to finish the job, but not there. Not when all we're doing is squandering ourselves. Maybe it's time to find a new strategy, only this time we take what we've learned and get smart about it. You know, as this radical Islamist movement gets stronger and we continue to beat our heads against the wall, there is a possibility that we could lose this fight. We seem to be taking it for granted that we could swat Al-Qaeda like a fly if we so choose, and yet what kind of victories have we won? Where's our track record? For all the heated rhetoric after 9/11, what lessons have we taught them about invading our country and attacking our citizens? Yeah, I know that the democrats think that if we just ignore the problem it will go away, but we've got to be more responsible than that. We've got to figure out a winning strategy and put the terrorists on the defensive, and we're not going to do that by spilling our blood all over the Iraqi desert."

"It's too late for that now. If we don't beat them in Iraq then it's over. We've got to stay the course. We've got to beat them there. Whatever it takes."

"But General Lee, I have no division. "